Jared Verdejo
Media is Magic - A Summer Youth Camp Comes To An End

Practical Multimedia Skills Practiced at The Hub Studios - Media is Magic
During the month of July 2022, a few media specialists and myself facilitated an awesome program for High School Students in the Waukegan, IL area. In collaboration with Waukegan Arts Council, Potboiler Media, Columbia College Chicago, and funded by the IL Humanities Council.
Instructors:
Kyra Lyons
Video Producer, Civic Media Student, Writer
Jarmel Reece
Video Producer, Artist, Life Coach
Izzy Reyes
Graphic Artist, Design Researcher, Content Creator
Jared Verdejo
Graphic Designer, Creative Strategist, Entrepreneur
With these creative and driven individuals, we built a cohesive program to teach practical media skills with a focus on community development. Our focus: marketing the North Chicago Farmer’s Market sponsored by Waukegan Wellness www.waukeganwellness.com (a website I built myself by the way).
Our Goal:
During their time with us, these young creatives will be able to explore, plan, produce, and edit a campaign. A campaign is an organized course of action or series that achieves a goal. Media is Magic is about learning and using media to tell a story. We will align our products with the concept of “wellness” and what that word means to you.
At the end of this program, students will have taken part in the campaign by assisting in videography, graphic design, and social media content creation. The end-goal of this 4-week program is to get the student’s creative gears grinding and, hopefully, pique some interest in media as a potential career.
Structure:
Based on the “Hive Model”, civic media student, Kyra Lyons, was able to design a curriculum layout with Civic Action in the center. Our mission was to allow students to be a part of designing, recording, and editing-while helping promote a community effort.
Hive Modelby Prof. Yonty Friesem, Civic Media Production
Week 1: July 5, 2022 | 12pm - 3pm
EXPLORATION: Introductions and Overview
Week 2: July 14, 2022 | 12pm - 3pm
IDEATION & PLANNING: Diving Deeper Into the Process
Week 3: July 19, 2022 | 12pm - 3pm
PRODUCTION: Hands-on Learning
Week 4: Session (4) July 26, 2022 | 12pm - 3pm
EDITING: Creating a Product
Outcome:
Students were able to work with each other, ask important questions, design, record each other, and take part in presentations by media instructors. Overall, we got to know each student’s interests and the skills they already brought to the table. Some students were illustrators, some already produced their own music, se were aspiring You-Tubers, others did not know what they wanted to do in the world of media production. And that is okay. Our goal was not to push them but to educate them about how marketing works. It starts small - an idea. Then you get to planning, working with others, producing, having fun, and by the end, you have something amazing to show the world. I think the kids were able to see every step behind the creative process. I’m glad I was part of sending the message that Media is Magic!
Check out the work that students put out on our website!



